Surface lights
by Boltninja75
Summary: An octoling has been ordered to go to the surface and preform a kidnapping by the end of the month. Will she be able to pull through with her order or will she find her own light.
1. Chapter 1

[Hey! Welcome to a fic about an OC I thought about at 3am in the morning. I've also been writing this a 3am so my gramma is going to be awesome. It gets better I assume so stick around? Set before Splatoon 1.]

[Splatoon is owned by Nintendo.]

The world was dark when she first opened her eyes. The world around her had been shadowed off, forbidden to see by normal sight; only her implanted knowledge told her what was beyond her grasp. Her world wasn't stripped of noises as off in the distance muffled shouting and heavy machinery moving to and from could be heard attending to the outside. She heard her breathing echo back into her mind. She was alive.

—-

She couldn't move. Her body was so new and fresh to the world that it couldn't put up a struggle to escape what was trapping her. She lightly moved her tentacles around her container, tapping on different sounding materials around her. One section towards her face made a chinking noise while the rest made clanging noises, those she could tell where much stronger. She tried pushing with all the force she could on the chinking noise but it didn't budge. She knew there was no escape yet and lay still with her thoughts and mind thinking of the outside.

—-

She didn't have a grasp of time yet so she wasn't sure when she could hear the barks of commands getting closer to her. The movement of marching feet filled the air as it would come and go, stopping in time. It drew closer and closer towards her before it stopped once more. This was the first time she ever felt the emotion fear. A blasting light shone directly through the chinking side, blinding her and forcing her body to recoil as much as it could. Many shouts and quickened steps surrounded her location, clearly intrigued by their find. More lights blared into her eyes as the chatter grew louder and louder. She thought she was turning blind by all the lights until they suddenly stopped and all fell quiet around her. Nothing was moving and it was starting to scare her. While the steps and voices were no longer, the sound of a machines rumbling engine drew closer before the voices and movement started once more. The sound of clanging and scrapping was heard from underneath as she was thrusted backwards to the containers wall. The machines beeping and revving engine was deafening and disorientating as she felt her body giggle up and down. She had no idea what was happening.

—

The machine finally reached a halt and she once more felt her body fall towards the backside of her container. The chinking side layed upwards staring into the nothingness as the machines engine died off and the shouts re-emerged from the distance. Scuffling sounds surrounded her before a loud popping noise followed by creaking entered her confinement. A blast of heat hit her body as tentacles grabbed at any of her limbs they could get ahold of. She was thrusted out of her container, causing her to fall flat onto the ground. She felt a change develop around her and forced herself to take her first steps.

—

Tinted green eyes stared at her, watching her struggle moving independently. The eyes didn't intervene until they felt she could walk better on her own before sending tentacles back on her limbs. The tentacles owners lifted her over their heads and carried her towards an operating building nearby. The buildings inside was lightly lit and was mainly painted a white tinge slowly deteriorating. She turned her body slightly in their grip to see the things carrying her. Large red tentacles with legs held her up high as they waited for permission to place her down. It didn't take long and she was forced upon a table. A different walking tentacle wearing all white and a mask entered the room and quietly examined her body. It gave off a humming noise before leaving shortly. It returned with two others similarly dressed, each holding something in their tentacles. They gave a motion to the carriers and they held her down. The two new tentacles that entered poked and prodded her body before slowly attached items they were carrying to her body. The weight was felt across her body, it made her feel uneasy trying to breathe. The last tentacle reached for her face and shoes that it held goggles of a silver tint and very carefully slid them on. At first she didn't realise the change it brought, she thought it only helped her see; but slowly she felt her mind slipping, her thoughts stopping, the orders entering.

—

Date: xx/xx/xx

Doctors report: Maryll Zol

Patient: Newly registered 5H31L. Found in pod outside of unregistered shipment docking in the newest dome to lose power.

Purpose of report: 5H31L shows no signs of abnormally against other octolings except creation in pod. Body weight in range, eye sight regular, colouring correct. No major deformities. Showed no signs of struggling when placing equipment. Should be sent to training grounds as soon as pickup arrives. Suggest being trained individually as patient showed no signs of being sociable or able of communicate. Should start an investigation on found area if any free resources are available.

Signed: Maryll Zol

[rip octoling.]


	2. Chapter 2

[boom back at it again with another chapter (even though I'm uploading three chapters in one night. This ones longer and setting up the big revveal (ooooo).]

The world underground was rough and only those who played dirty and pretended they were though made it to the next day. 5H31L woke up as usual to the sounds of commands blaring through microphones demanding that they get in formation by five minutes or else. It became natural to her, never getting in line late. She would never take off her armour when she was forced to sleep so she was always part of the first ones out, only needing to grab her weapon on the way out. She walked up to the white lines across the ground and faced an octarian with a black hat. Slowly more octolings came out of their tents and stood in line. They waited until the five minutes were up before the morning roll call occurred. It was no surprise that all soldiers were accounted for, no dare wanted punishment. The octarian started doing his daily speech telling them all about their sacrifices and the enemy still at large; the same old every day. Once the octarian finished and a salute to their leader DJ Octavio the rest of the octolings were put into the squadrons, all except her. No squad when she joined the army accepted her, they wouldn't let her bond with them and would complain that she wasn't born right. There was no point forcing more time in making a squadron around her so they chose her to be apart of a special part of the military, specialising in being stealthy and lethal without being noticed. They would call her to train at all hours and showed her just how stealthy an octopus can really be.

—-

She headed towards the training ground, hoping for someone to spar. Younglings that wanted to spectate circled around the pit in a hole as two octolings were locked into battle, locking their tentacles together and using all their strength to kick and punch their way through their contender. The fight was clearly one sided as the taller one managed to kick in the smaller ones legs, forcing it to hit the ground, allowing the taller one to pin the other to the ground. Cheers from the spectators rang out as the taller one took her prize of dignity and climbed out. The smaller one took its time before getting out, clearly embarrassed before heading wherever it need be. Not wanting to wait for another match to start before her, she climbed down into the pit, chucked her gun up out of the way and waited. The spectators cheered and shouted for someone to fight her and soon later purple tentacles made their way into the pit. 5H31L was a pretty good fighter, she needed to be for her profession but versing a purple octoling was practically an instant loss. Purples were the heads of many squads, commanding and leading them into battle. They were trained even harder than her and they knew how to make their opponent squeal. The purple octoling made a devilish giggle sound before signaling the spectators to start the countdown to fight. The spectators counted down from ten and by one they were into battle. No mask could stop the death stares that each of them gave off as their bodies moved to dodge each others hits. They skipped around each other, going in for strikes but never landing anything win worthy. As more went by, the more tired and restless they became. The purple octoling was getting frustrated at the slow pace of her opening and tried a tactic of going in hard but that was what 5H31L wanted; the one hit KO. The purple octoling ran straight at her, managing to struck her to the chest and kneed her in the stomachs but 5H31L still stood, just a bit more winded. She took this opportunity as an opening to grab the purple octolings wrist and pull her towards herself, knocking her balance. As she was pulling her towards herself, the other hand swung outwards and punched orderly into the opponents face before letting go. The purple octoling stood staggered for a second before 5H31L pushed her to the ground and pinned her. The spectators went nuts as cheered immensely for her. She simply looked up and gave a toothy grin before seeing that her opponent was okay. The purple octoling was definitely unconscious so she picked up its body and gently chucked her out of the pit. Some of spectators took that as their que to take her to the infirmary and moved in. 5H31L climbed out, grabbed her gun and placing it on her belt. She stood around the spectators, hearing all their compliments and prasies. She stood there embracing it all until a commanding shout cane at their direction and all quickly stood tall facing the shout. An octarian walked by and eyed them down before asking what had happened. One brave spectator octoling explained that 5H31L had managed to defeat a squad leader octoling. The octarians eyes open a bit more wider than usual at the new information before commanding them to go and get a job to attend to. She too was about to go before the octarian told her to stop and head to her training bay.

—-

She walked into the darkened room and waited patiently for any signs of movement. In the corner of her vision she saw an octarian march towards her before jestering to test her shooting abilities in the shooting range. She walked into the side room and pulled out her standard octoshot from around her belt before going off on the targets. While her field didn't need her to know how to shoot, she felt the need to know just in case and tried mastering most weapons. Her aim was always lop sided, always shooting right far too much but she couldn't figure out why. It's wasn't too bad and didn't hinder her so she never adapted. Once the octarian thought her shooting training was done for the day she called her to the main room. She wasn't expecting anything new to happen that day but once she enetered that room, a smaller but bulkier octarian stood there with a smirk behind a table. She walked up to the octarian and stared. The octarian looked her up and down before it spoke "So I hear your the one who beat a squad leader today. Big stir that was. How would you like a real mission, Soldier?"

[saying 5H31L out loud is fun. Also what are names.]


	3. Chapter 3

[last chapter for the night. Also I'm slowly writing more (like 100 words more) so yay?]

The question the octarian gave wasn't a true one, it was an order; an important one. 5H31L stared back as a gesture to continue to talk and the octarian nodded. "You must know by now that electricity is becoming a luxury to us, this base barely used any. We want to try changing that but we know we're not ready for a full on attack. But what can we do to get ready?" The octarian looked moved in closer towards her ear and half whispered, "There's a couple of spies here and there that we send to the surface to monitor our prey. They're been reporting in on how strong the squids are growing and where the powers being stored at. Now the power problem can't be tackled by one octoling that's for sure but the squids strength; that can." The octarian pulled back and walked over to a briefcase that was at the front door and brought it back to the table. The octarian opened it, revealing pictures in black and white of the surface and some squids. Two pictures slid towards her, one showed a female squid that was mostly coloured in black, had its tentacles wrapped in a large bow and was winking while striking a pose towards a crowd of squids. The other picture was similar but had a photo of a less in dark colour squid with her tentacles also in a bow that was much shorter and more hidden, strike a very similar pose to a crowd. He let 5H31L continue to stare at the photos while he started to talking one more. "These are some of the best motivators the squids have to keep living. Their names are Callie and Marie, remember that. You'll be tasked with kidnapping the weaker link of those squids, Callie. If she falls into our hands, the squids will fall into a panic or even better; fight among themselves. You'll be sent at their first day of the month and will stay up there until the month ends. You'll know when the month ends because they throw a festival in the streets, I would suggest getting her before then." The octarian stares at her and 5H31L looked back at its. "You ready to win this war for DJ; our kind?" She just stared and didn't nod. The octarian decided to take that as a yes and dismissed her, telling her that he would contact her when their month was about to begin. 5H31L left the building and headed off to do something else before her work day was over, not questioning what she had gotten herself into.

—-

It was almost a week later when she was awoken by the octarian standing above her bed calling her name. 5H31L immediately got up and stood, waiting her orders. The octarian gave her one more look over before saying, "today's the day octoling. You won't be able to come back until the end of the month once you're up there, and don't even think about deserting the army or getting any thoughts; we'll know." The octarian made a snarky grin at the end of that sentence, making sure she knew that she didn't want that. "Now the way you're getting up to the surface is by an old kettle we hid just in case we ever needed it. I'm not sure where it spawns you but the others made it fine so I assume you will too. Just remember the plan; get Callie. You don't need to say goodbye to anyone so let's get you up there." The octarian started walking off, followed close behind by her. They walked outside of the base and went deeper into the underground until a very lightly lit structure was seen on the ground. "Well octoling this is the kettle. When your missions done try to remember your way back or just get to the underground and we'll find you. Good luck and for DJ Octavio!" 5H31L walked up to the kettle and stood upon its mesh surface. Taking in a breath she sucked in air and turned into her octopus form. She waited until she heard heard the slam of the kettle shut and sprung herself through the kettle to take her to her destination; the surface.

—-

The ride wasn't very smooth, having many sharp twists and turns going in all directions but she could feel the cool air hitting her face. She had made it. Just before she truely entered the surface, she stayed under the kettle and looked out of it's top. She had made it at a reasonably good time as the world was dark but lit by lights. She waited a bit more, making sure she couldn't hear any footsteps before quietly springing out of the kettle and moving slightly into the closest alley. She looked around and gasp at the sights. There were lights glittering in all different colours that seemed to dance around her, there were big green stick things that looked living, the roof even had better little lights than the ones that kept breaking underground; but most importantly, nearly directly above her was a zap fish! One of those could easily fix their power shortages underground! But then she remember that wasn't her job, she had to find Callie. But that wasn't the major priority right now as she needed a base of operations set up, somewhere safe but not too obvious to squid kind. She made sure no one was creeping behind her back before heading down the alley. She was going to keep going but something purple coloured and visibly sleeping was in her way. She drew her gun but didn't point at it. What is that thing? It clearly wasn't a squid, this thing had spikes but the army warn her about other life. Whatever it was she wasn't about to deal with it so she decided to put her training to test and attempt to sneak past it. She walked quietly, freezing with every sudden move the creature made off. By the time she reached the wall the purple thing was in a safe distance to not hear her and allow herself a safe access over the wall. She jumped and pulled herself over with ease before running a short while, just making sure the creature truely wasn't chasing her. She stopped at a different, smaller alley and caught her breath. She followed through the alley and kept to the shadows. She was looking for a run down building or appartments to claim as her own hopefully for her time up here so she kept going. She looked up at the roof and saw how much it had changed, it was getting light. She needed to find shelter fast so she stopped being so stealthy and tried walking faster. She walked and walked until she finally saw it, an abandoned apartment building out on the outskirts of the city. It would have to do for now so she entered through the front door and barricaded it with anything that could be pushed in front of it. She then made sure the rooms were truely empty before settling on a old, springy mattress. As the lights rose on the roof, 5H31L slowly dozed off into her first day on the surface.

[Awww she thinks the sky is a roof. Do you think the octarian army know about the other species living in the city? They have to know... right? Sure they want to kill the squids but there's like 20 other species living there.]


	4. Chapter 4

[im super tired so this ones short. It's prety much setting up for the next chapter so sorry.]

She woke up to the sounds of shouting coming from outside. Where she was staying was clearly the bad side of the city, the place the rich try to hide. She got up and stretched before carefully peeking through the curtains. There was no signs of the shouters and the roof was turning dark again, a cycle she knew she would need to catch up on. She stretched a bit more before grabbing her gun and heading towards the top of the buildings. She climbed the building with ease and started to walk over the buildings that were furthest away from the main roads. Her goal until the light rised once more was to make it to that area where she spawned and scout it for signs of Callie. For a while it was easy to move about but then building became more spacious, better materials were being used and more windows were around; she had to step up her game. She decided to turn into her octopus mode and jump from the sides of the buildings, climb up, go over and do the same process. She was trained to stick to the walls without ink so getting around was no problem. It did take that extra time but it was worth it in the end. She ended up on a building next to a train line that lead to who knows where. It's was close enough to the kettle without actually walking there or being on the roof near that purple thing from before. She very quietly got down on her stomach and crawled to the edge, just enough to see over and beyond but not see her if looking from ten ground. She took in the sights. In her mind this was clearly where the squids probably did the morning roll calls in this giant circle before going off on their daily duties. She looked at the zapfish and gave a stupid grin at it; even she had to admit it was pretty cute. On the left side of the circle there was stores of some description, one of them she could make out that said something about ammo, probably a weapon safe or something. The buildings on her side didn't make much sense she could only hear the feint noises of some type of bitty music playing. She knew she would have to come in the daytime soon and pray that Callie hanged around here. She was about to get up when a giant screen just under the zapfish lit up and set off a jingle. On the screen flashed a logo before she saw her: Callie. It was pre-recorded clearly as it showed light in the background but it also gave away her location. In the background she could see the ammo store as well as a tree and railings. If she had to guess she either under where she was now or somewhere very, very close. She headed back to the apartment now knowing where she had to be but she couldn't just wander up in the light without immediately being shot; no she needed a disguise. But she didn't know what to wear or how to hide her tentacles. She climbed down her building and headed to sleep while it it was still dark, hoping to make a plan by next nightfall.

—-

She woke up with the lights still tuned on. She could hear squids chattering away somewhere nearby and the sounds of a train moving in the distance. If she had a disguise this would be a good time to go out but she didn't, leaving her trapped in the apartment for however long. She carefully looked outside the window and saw a couple of squids running around, laughing as one tried to touch the other. The squids weren't wearing armour, she noticed, it looked like very scruffy material that wouldn't even stop one shot. 5H31L decided they mustn't wear their armour because they knew they weren't under threat or they're farmers. None of them hid their tentacles as they swayed freely in the air, she would defiantly need a helmet. She sighed and left the window, looks like tonight was a stealing night. So she hung around the apartment and looked around a bit more. That's when it also hit her that she was starving. She didn't need to eat much but with nothing left in the apartment, food was definitely going to become an issue especially if squids ate stuff she couldn't. Her mind started to think back to where food was and it hit her; there was a whiff of food in that blue machine she passed near the purple spikey thing. At least it was on the way towards the major circle so she could stop by if she got the disguise she needed.

[Yeah short but next ones going to be longer because she's got to steal a heap of stuff.]


End file.
